Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

• 5 Strips Turkey Bacon - cooked and chopped
• 1 1/2 Cups Chicken - diced or shredded
• 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Cup Onion - diced
• 1 Cup Carrot - diced
• 1/2 Cup Celery - diced
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme
• 8 oz Mushrooms - sliced
• 4 Cloves Garlic - minced
• 4 Cups Unsalted Chicken Stock (Swanson)
• 1 Cup Water
• 4 Cups Spinach
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
• 8 oz Wild Rice - cooked
• 1 Cup Half-and-Half
• 1/3 Cup All Purpose Flour

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch Oven over medium-high heat, add onion, carrot and celery - Saute 3 minutes
2. Add thyme, mushrooms and garlic to pot - Saute 5 minutes
3. Add chicken stock and water to pot, bring to boil - reduce to simmer for 10 minutes
4. Add spinach, season with salt and pepper - cook for additional 3 minutes
5. Add chicken and wild rice to pot
6. In a small bowl whisk half-and-half with flour and stir into the soup - cook 2 minutes
7. Ladle 1 2/3 Cup servings into bowls and top with bacon

This one rings in at a mere 197 calories per serving!

Chicken Avocado Salad

Chicken Avocado Salad

Salad Stuff:

2 Large Chicken Breasts (cooked and chopped)

2 Avocados (diced)

1 Cup Whole Kernel Sweet Corn (charred a bit in a pan if you'd like)

4 strips of Turkey Bacon (cooked and chopped)

4 Green Onions - chopped

Salad Dressing Stuff:

3 Tablespoons Lemon juice

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper

Once you get all that, do this with it:

1. Whisk the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside
2. Add Salad ingredients to a large bowl
3. Pour your dressing into the large bowl with all the salad stuff
4. Toss to mix
5. Put into serving bowls....this should make enough for 4
6. Place 1 chopped up hard boiled egg on top of each serving bowl

Based on calculations from www.myfitnesspal.com this should fall between 400-430 calories per serving based on the size of certain ingredients, but at least you have a ballpark number!

Caprese Grilled Cheese

You are gonna need a few components for this sandwich.

Butter tomato jam (recipe below)
Pesto - make your own or get some in a jar
sliced fresh mozzarella
bread
butter

Quick butter tomato jam

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter divided
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

1. place cherry tomatoes into a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. 
2. once they start to get a little charred on the outside drop in 1 tablespoons of the butter and stir
3. reduce heat and mash up the tomatoes with a spoon or potato masher
4. add garlic, balsamic and the remaining tablespoon of butter, stir and simmer until thick like jam
5. season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now it is time to build your sandwich

1. grab your bread and layer on the pesto, tomato jam and cheese
2. butter the outsides of the bread
3. drop some butter into a skillet over medium heat and put the sandwich in the pan and cover
4. after a couple minutes flip the sandwich to brown the other side returning the cover to the pan.

all that is left to do is eat!

Chicken with lemon cream sauce and Mushroom risotto

Today's post is a two for one special! 

First off lets start with some Chicken with lemon cream sauce, here is what you are gonna need

• Chicken - either 4 boneless breasts or thighs...your choice
• Salt and pepper
• Chicken stock - 1 cup
• Lemon juice - 2 tablespoons
• Minced garlic - 1 tablespoon
• Red pepper flakes - this depends on how spicy you like your food
• Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
• Shallots - one large or two small, about 1/3 of a cup diced
• Salted butter - 2 tablespoons
• Heavy cream - 1/4 cup
• Fresh flat leaf parsley - 2 tablespoons chopped

Here is how you are going to put it all together!

1. Preheat your oven to 375 and make sure you have a rake in the middle
2. The Chicken, if it is thicker than a half inch, cover it with plastic and pound it down with either a mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan like the one you are gonna be using in a little bit.  then season both sides with some salt and pepper
3. Combine the stock, lemon juice, garlic and pepper flakes in a dish
4. Take a large skillet and put it on medium-high heat and add your oil
5. Brown your chicken about 2-3 minutes on each side, then remove the chicken to a plate and lower heat to medium
6. Toss the shallots and the dish of stock/juice/garlic/flakes to the pan
7. Use a wire whisk to scrape up any of the fond (brown bits on bottom of pan) 
8. Increase the heat to medium-high and let it reduce down about 1/3..it should take like 10 or 15 minutes depending on your stove
9. Once reduced take pan off the heat and toss in the butter to melt..whisk it around and add the cream and whisk a little more so everything is combined.
10. Put the pan back on the heat and put the chicken in and cover with sauce, you can either spoon it over or do it the easy way and put the chicken in and then flip it over.
11. Turn off the heat and put the pan in the oven for about 7 minutes, just need to make sure its cooked through
12. Remove pan from oven, let the chicken rest for a few minutes before cutting and serving, this is when you want to top it will the sauce and some of that parsley you chopped up earlier.

Here comes part 2...the mushroom risotto!

For this dish i used my Fagor Multi-Cooker, if you have an Instant-Pot you'll be set..if not just make risotto the old fashioned way.

Get this stuff ready

• Olive oil - 2 tablespoons
• Shallots - one medium diced, about a quarter cup
• Mushrooms - cut up, how much depends on how much you like them
• Arborio rice - 1 cup
• Chicken stock - 2 cups
• White wine - 1/4 cup
• Parmesan cheese - 1/4 cup grated, use fresh if you can
• Parsley - 1 tablespoon, should have some left from the previous dish

The simple 3 step process is...

1. Turn the cooker to saute mode, add the oil and saute the shallots, mushrooms and the rice for about 5 minutes - turn off the saute mode
2. Add the stock and the wine, lock the lid in pressure mode and press the risotto button and set for 7 minutes
3. Turn the pressure valve to steam to do the quick release method and remove the lid.  stir in the cheese and the parsley and serve it up

Chicken and Pasta in Tomato Butter Sauce

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thin sliced
• salt and pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 15oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• one handful chopped fresh basil
• ¼ cup salted butter
• 8 ounces spaghetti

1. Boil Pasta according to package directions.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat
3. sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper on both sides
4. Add chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes per side until cooked throughout
5. Place cooked chicken and set on a plate
6. Remove skillet from heat for a minute, then add the tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened
7. Add garlic and butter to tomato sauce, after butter has melted add chicken to warm up in the sauce
8. Stir in basil
9. Serve over prepared pasta

Pizza Muffins

Football season is almost over...but not before the biggest game of the year the Super Bowl.  Regardless of who is playing everyone seems to still tune in at least for the commercials.  So if you are still needing an idea for a party snack go ahead and give these pizza muffins a try.

These 6 simple ingredients are all you need:

• 1 can of Grand's southern style butter tasting biscuits (8 large biscuits per can)
• Olive oil - 2 Tbsp
• 1 1/4 cup shredded cheese (i used a mix of mozzarella and colby)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 Tbsp italian seasoning
• 6 oz pepperoni (i used the mini's, if large cut them up first)

Here is how you throw them together

1. Open up the tube of biscuits and cut eat into 4 or 5 pieces and toss into a large bowl
2. Add Oil to the bowl and toss or stir to coat the biscuit pieces in oil
3. Toss in everything else, stir to combine
4. Grease a standard muffin pan and pack the mixture into the cups to fill to the top
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes
6. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve with pizza sauce for dipping

When I made this I ended up with 10 muffins, some were larger than others, so if you pack less in each cup you will end up with more.

Another tip...put a sheet pan under the muffin pan to catch any oil that might drip over the edge.

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

I've been breaking out my Lux Multi-Cooker more often these past few weeks, today I put it to use in slow cooker mode to make up some easy Mongolian Beef. 

I really like the multi-cooker because it has replaced my rice cooker, slow cooker and pressure cooker...i highly recommend getting a multi-cooker..be it a the Lux by Fagor or one of the very popular Instant Pots.

Here is the recipe for the Mongolian Beef

In your slow cooker add the following:

• 1 pound beef sliced across the grain (flank steak works well)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 3/4 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 cup shredded carrots

set you slow cooker to low for 6 hours, or high for 4
when you have 15 minutes left mix 2 Tbsp corn starch with some water in a bowl and then pour it into the slow cooker and recover for the last 15 minutes

and that's it...like I said...super simple!

Serve with rice, sliced green onions and sesame seeds